diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index e27a4bb..61b0195 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
     //unused_imports, // TODO: rm
 )]
 
+mod util;
 mod scanner;
 mod permutations;
 
diff --git a/src/permutations.rs b/src/permutations.rs
index dfa5b4b..db7cc35 100644
--- a/src/permutations.rs
+++ b/src/permutations.rs
@@ -8,19 +8,8 @@ let i = 0 .. u32:max_value()
 
 # Convert each i to base 256 and we get all the ipv4 addresses
 # This is waaaay better than a stupid loop
-
-
 */
 
-// TODO: make a better implementation of this function
-fn digits(n: usize) -> impl Iterator<Item = u32> {
-    n.to_string()
-        .chars()
-        .map(|digit| digit.to_digit(10).unwrap())
-        .collect::<Vec<_>>()
-        .into_iter()
-}
-
 struct IPv4 {
     id: u32,
     ip: Vec<u8>
diff --git a/src/util.rs b/src/util.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3e6c9a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/util.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+
+/*
+uint ulong_len(ulong n) { // get the digit length of a number
+    int len = 0;
+    while (n != 0) {
+        n = n / 10;
+        ++len;
+    }
+    return len;
+}
+*/
+
+fn digit(num: u32, idx: u32) -> u8 {
+    // ((num % (10**(idx+1))) - (num % (10**idx)))/(10**idx) 
+    (((num % (10_u32.pow(idx+1))) - (num % (10_u32.pow(idx))))/(10_u32.pow(idx))) as u8
+}
+
+fn numlen(num: u32) -> u8 {
+    let len: u8 = 0;
+    while num != 0 {
+        num = num / 10;
+        len += 1;
+    }
+    len
+}
+
+fn get_digits(num: u32) -> Vec<u8> {
+    let out: Vec<u8> = Vec::new();
+
+    let len = numlen(num);
+
+    for idx in 0..len {
+        out.push(digit(num, idx as u32)); 
+    }
+
+    out
+}